As is unfortunately the case with most multiplayer games these days, Overwatchcan suffer from a rather divided and frustrating community.

At its best, it’s among the most welcoming and embracing gaming community. At it’s worst, however, it can turn into a real challenge as you battle toxic teammates, griefers, smurfers, and more.

We all know that type of player, or have come up against or teamed up with that type of player: the one that runs past objectives, ignores the payload, don’t utilise their player correctly, and straight up waste their ultimate.

Sometimes other players can let you down. More often than not the community knows exactly how to get it done, but occasionally you just have those players in your team that keep making the same mistakes.

Let’s take a look at the worst type of Overwatch players.

The Players That Run Past/Ignore The Objective

This primarily applies to Control, but also to the other capture modes in Hybrid and Assault. All too often do I find myself hanging back, waiting for my team to group up ahead of the objective, only to see one or two of my “teammates” deviate from the objective toward the enemy spawn point for kills.

This leaves myself and my other teammates to capture and/or defend the objective, and if the enemy happens to flank and get around us, then suddenly we’re outnumbered.

I understand the logic around rushing the enemy’s spawn as a means to keep pushing them back and deeper, but the reality is that this strategy will only work so long until someone on the enemy team switches to Reaper or Tracer or Solider:76 and blasts right past you.

This philosophy also breaks down in Control, because you’re not really defending: you’re rushing the point to capture it before the opponent.

The Players That Don’t Protect The Payload

In both Escort and Hybrid, I’ve seen this happen far too often.

The natural progression of this mode should be that you create a perimeter around the payload to stop the defenders from getting close and pushing you back.

However, the primary objective is to escort the payload. Running off toward the enemy spawn actually puts your team at a massive disadvantage, because even if you do manage to take out one of them, if you happen to die you spawn further away from the payload than the defenders do, which suddenly puts you on the back foot.

The Players That Don’t Know How To Use Support Characters

If I had a dollar for every time someone using Mercy gave me a damage boost when I needed a health boost, I’d be able to buy Blizzard.

Zenyatta is similarly under-utilised: if you want to be aggressive, don’t choose Mercy, because she is exclusively for support.

Lucio, Zenyatta and Symmetra are far more effective assault characters with Support traits.

The Players That Waste Their Ultimates

“Ryuu-ga, Wa-ga-te-ki-wo…URGHHHH!”

I don’t recommend holding onto Ultimates until the end, or for when you’re in a jam, but I do expect that teammates use them strategically in a way where they’re effective and useful.

I understand that sometimes it needs to be used in an emergency to get out of a jam, but it’s worth taking one for your team and saving it to either clear the objective/payload, or the path to help your team move forward.

The Players That Don’t Utilise Their Teammates

I’ve spoken at length about this here. Reinhardt is a good example here. If I choose him for the shield, only for my teammates to rush out directly into the line of fire, it makes using a big, slow tank character utterly useless.

The Players That Run Straight Into The Opposition’s Hands

Overwatch demands strategic character selection and team balance. Often when you’re attacking, the defenders will set up turrets and Bastion’s Sentry directly down the central corridor.

If you’re lucky, there will always be a way around to flank, but if there isn’t, change things up.

I often switch to a Reinhardt to shield my teammates, or Mei to quickly bring up an ice wall in front of a turret’s line of site. It often makes the difference.

If you see that those aren’t working, mix it up even more. Go with a Hanzo or Widowmaker and try some long-range sniper shots to take them down.

Just don’t continually run back to the same spot, hoping that they’ve moved on, because if you keep going there, they’re not going to move. And then before you know it, you’re hearing, “MOL-TEN COORRRRRE” and then you’re really struggling.

The Players That Don’t Rush An Objective As Time Is Winding Down

On Capture, the main objective is to CAPTURE. THE. OBJECTIVE.

While it’s good form to hang back and wait for spawning teammates, even if you’re losing or have lost the capture point, if timing is winding down and you’re about to, you know, LOSE THE POINT, then jump on that mofo and give your team those few extra seconds of overtime.

I really hate watching my Killcam, and seeing teammates hang back trying to get kills while the timer winds down. What’s the point? You never know: you might be able to fend them off for long enough before reinforcements arrive.

I’ve lost countless matches because teammates have just ignored the timer, either purposefully or because they’re totally unaware of the time.

The Players That Bark Orders Yet Don’t Play By Their Own Standards

Playing on Xbox, there’s not anywhere near as much chatter as their is on PC. When someone is using a mic, a lot of the time it’s generally good banter with players helping teammates out and making recommendations.

But sometimes you get that player come into the group that starts barking orders at other people, telling them to rush the point or “GET ON THE POINT!”, only for them to be hovering around it.

The worst is when you lose a match, only for some dropkick on his mic to be yelling at you and your teammates for losing the match. Meanwhile, you get a card for most damage blocked, and he’s there barking orders and voting for other people.

The Players That Demand A Support Character But Don’t Want To Play Support Themselves

This isn’t exclusive to Support characters but it’s certainly been in the majority for me.

I’m not one to play Support generally but if the team tips say we need one and no one else is going as Support, I will take the plunge.

But occasionally I’ve been in a situation where myself and maybe one or two other players are holding the line, only for another player nowhere near the objective to bark orders at us to choose a specific character so that he can set up his Bastion sentry without being sniped by Hanzo or Widowmaker.

Gaetano Prestia Editor in Chief

Gaetano loves Doritos and always orders Mountain Dew with his KFC. He's not sorry. He also likes Call Of Duty, but would much rather play Civ. He hates losing at FIFA, and his pet hate is people who recline their seat on short-haul flights.